April 25, 2012

Your knitting or crochet hero - Kaffe Fassett - 3KCBWDAY3

Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are
not too many guidelines for this, it's really about introducing your
readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you.
It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer,
indie dyer or another blogger.

This topic was a little difficult for me, because there are so many knitters and designers whose work I admire. I finally decided to write about Kaffe Fassett, because it was his amazing patterns that made me want to learn how to knit. Years ago, I found his wonderful book Glorious Knits at my mother's house and I couldn't stop looking at it. I decided to learn how to knit, so that I could try to make all the beautiful things in the book.

Since then, I've gotten two more of his books and they are a constant source of inspiration. He is an amazing artist and I've learned so much about color. I love to read his books over and over again and look at all the wonderful pictures.

Over the years, I've learned other knitting techniques, but I always go back to working with color. And I think that Kaffe Fassett is the designer whose patterns I've knit the most. Some of my first projects were a striped shawl which was a gift for a friend of mine and a striped T-shirt which always makes me smile when I wear it.

I've also experimented with some of his designs and while I didn't finish those projects, I do want to knit those patterns again sometime. The damask flower is one of my favorites and the carpet pattern is a fantastic mix of intarsia and stripes.

Damsask flower // λουλούδι Damask

The Kaffe Fassett pattern I knit and that I'm most proud of is the Persian Poppies vest I made for my mother last year. Three months of knitting, more than twenty colors and a million ends but it was worth it. I think it's the best thing I've ever knit. You can read more about it here and here.

There are times when I just want to knit something simple but when I feel creative, I always turn to Kaffe Fassett's patterns. It's so much fun to play with all the colors and the finished project is always unique and beautiful.

I'm also a big fan of the yarns he designed for Regia and I've used his colors many times! I think they are perfect for socks and shawls and I still have some that I'm going to use for a striped cardigan.

What beautiful pictures! Your post reminded me of Kaffe's pattern for that fabulous Tumbling Blocks blanket. I've always wanted to make that. It's inspiring to see the good results you've had with his patterns.